‘Disgraceful in the Spirit of the Game!’ - Australia fans react to viral images of Nagpur pitch ahead of 1st Test in BGT 2023

Australia will look to win a Test series in India after 2004/05 when they will kick off the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on 9 February 2023 in Nagpur. On the other hand, team India will look to continue their dominance at home. However, the pitch of Nagpur is in the headlines in the last few days. 

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On 7 February 2023, Cricket Australia shared some pictures where Steve Smith, David Warner, and others were seen monitoring the Nagpur pitch closely. After that, Steve Smith had an interaction with the reporters. There, he confirmed that the pitch has some dry patches, particularly one end.

Australia might find it tough to face the top spinners of team India this time around again 

Steve Smith said: "Pretty dry, particularly one end. I think it will take a bit of spin, particularly the left-arm spinner taking it into our left-handers. There's a section there that's quite dry. Other than that, I can't really get a good gauge on it. I don’t think there will be a heap of bounce in the wicket, I think it will be quite skiddy for the seamers and maybe a bit of up-and-dteown movement as the game goes on. The cracks felt quite loose. I'm not entirely sure – we'll wait and see."

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Now, on 8 February, the famous cricket author, Bharat Sundaresan shared those images with a caption on Twitter. He wrote: “Interesting treatment of the pitch in Nagpur. The groundstaff watered the entire centre of the surface & only the length areas outside the left-hander’s leg stump & then rolled only the centre, stopping short every time they got to the good length areas at both ends #IndvAus”. 

Even, the renowned Australian news channel, ‘Fox Cricket’ shared some pictures of the pitch and accused team India of “straight-up pitch doctoring” the Nagpur pitch. According to their reports, only the centre of the Nagpur wicket was watered and rolled while the area where bowlers will target left-handers was left bone dry. It has happened on either end of the pitch. Hence, it has been claimed that this is just a deliberate ploy for team India for all the left-handed batters of Australia. Seeing such images, Australian fans came up and shared their views on social media platforms. Some fans also raised questions about the spirit of the game from the Men in Blue.       

Here are some viral tweets from Australia’s fans:

It’s cheating is what it is… in every moral sense of the game you can’t prepare certain areas of the pitch differently. Needs to be prepared evenly. If others do it around the world it’s never as blatant as this!

— Anthony Spiteri (@anthonyspiteri) February 7, 2023

@RaviShastriOfc said, he wants a pitch that spins on the day 1. And that's fair. Hope it spins and we in for a great contest.

— Krishan Deegalla (@krishandeegalla) February 8, 2023

🤣🤣🤣🤣

— Oliver Hanrahan (@HanrahanOl) February 7, 2023

Stating the obvious here but sounds rather dodgy Bharat? Have you seen a pitch with different patches deliberately done before?

— Tom Connell (@tomwconnell) February 7, 2023

Silly stuff. India beat Australia in Australia on good true pitches, winning the decider on the bouncy Gabba. They shouldn't need to play funny buggers with the wicket.

— 💧Oliver Jacques (@OliverJacquesAU) February 8, 2023

This has been the trend for a while now. Selective watering. The attempt is to neutralise the back of length from quicks while maximising spin impact. But it’s not an exact science and doesn’t always work as intended!

— Anand Vasu (@anandvasu) February 7, 2023

Both teams play on the same pitch.

— Tom Dougherty (@ThomasDougherty) February 8, 2023

Is this in the spirit of the game?

— David Kettle (@DragonKettle) February 7, 2023